Students Form Human Swastika in San Jose
In a shocking incident, eight high school students in San Jose created a human swastika on their football field, a distressing display of anti-Semitism that has sent ripples through the Silicon Valley area.
The unsettling event was captured in photographs and shared in a now-deleted social media post that included a heinous quote attributed to Adolf Hitler from 1939.
The Instagram post featured the caption: “If the international Jewish capitalists in Europe and abroad succeed in plunging the nations into another world war, the result will not be the Bolsheviization of the planet and the victory of the Jews, but the extermination of the Jewish people in Europe.”
Maya Bronicki and the Bay Area Jewish Federation informed NBC Bay Area that a classmate from Branham High School found the shocking images and alerted their family.
On Friday, Branham High School announced they had initiated an investigation into the matter.
Principal Beth Silbergeld released a statement emphasizing that “this was a disturbing and unacceptable act of anti-Semitism. Targeting, humiliating, and threatening Jewish students has no place on our campus,” as reported by the LA Times.
Silbergeld, who identifies as Jewish, describes herself on Instagram as “an educator, conscious eater, mom, urban hippie, sneakerhead, from New Jersey to California.”
State Senator Scott Wiener, who shared images of the incident on Facebook, commended the school’s rapid response. However, he raised a critical question: “But we need to ask ourselves why these students believed it was okay not only to see the swastika, but also to associate it with the extermination of the Jewish people by ‘international financial Jewry.'”
Wiener’s post elicited concerning responses from supporters of the students, including one comment that said, “This gives us faith in the next generation.”
The act was reported to the San Jose Police Department, and the school district has indicated it will collaborate with the Anti-Defamation League, the Bay Area Jewish Federation, and the Bay Area Jewish Community Relations Council.
